Another good read. We learn more about Kinsey?s past while she tryies to solve the whereabouts of the body of a little girl killed & buried twenty yrs earlier.

(2009)(partially audio)Probably the best in the series. Two kidnappings drag Kinsey into a dysfunctional family's affairs that also coincide with Kinsey's resolution of her own family problems with ?Grand? and the fight over her adoption at the time of her parent's accidental deaths.Publishers WeeklyFalse memory syndrome provides the core of bestseller Grafton's intriguing 21st crime novel featuring wry PI Kinsey Millhone (after T Is for Trespass). In 1988, Kinsey takes on client Michael Sutton, who claims to have recovered a childhood memory of men burying a suspicious bundle shortly after the unsolved disappearance of four-year-old Mary Claire Fitzhugh in 1972. But Sutton has a track record of unreliability, and Kinsey must untangle and reconfigure his disjointed recountings to learn if they are truth or fiction. Chapters told from the point of view of other characters in other time periods add texture, allowing the reader to assemble pieces of the case as Kinsey works on other aspects. A subplot involves Kinsey wrestling with conflicting information about her estranged family.

It occurred to me today that I've been reading these books for 28 years. That's kind of amazing to me. There are very few authors that I read in my early teens and am still reading now in my early forties.

I just really like Kinsey Millhone. Neither she nor Sue Grafton have let me down in all those years. Looking forward to the next installment and starting to feel a bit anxious about there only being four more books left.

Hmmm, what will I read for the next 30 years??? LOL ( )

I love Kinsey Millhone. But she's not everyone's cup of tea. I started reading the Alphabet series a few years ago - I think at the time it was up to O is for Outlaw. The idea of a mystery series each title beginning with a new letter amused me. I don't know why. I don't think it's particularly original. At least - I've seen a few others since. At the time though it was new to me and it just struck me as perfect. I flew through the series. Kinsey is riveting. She's brash and harsh and charming. She's fierce and flawed. She gets scared. She holds her own. She pushes herself to run often and tackles cases without judgement and with an open mind. Rosie and Henry are brilliant and I love the little family she builds around her.

But Kinsey Millhone isn't Jack Reacher - her speed is more Tracy Crosswhite. [book:My Sister's Grave|22341263] Her cases aren't full of action and high speed chases - they're slowly nitpicking away until something clicks into place. She writes down all her thoughts and places her facts and ideas on 3x5 index cards - which she often shuffles and rearranges to help her solve her case. And I love it. Kinsey Millhone is great - but she's not for everyone.

For some reason I've seen reviewers compare this to Stephanie Plum - I don't know why - this is absolutely NOTHING like that. Stephanie Plum is a very different character and an extremely different type of book. That's more fluff. Kinsey Millhone is more procedural mysteries. And this series isn't current - it was first published in the 80's - there's not really technology. Messages were relayed by calling the landlines. Paper files were still the main form of storage. Not everyone will enjoy reading this. But if you like your mysteries to be more like procedurals with a determined and fierce character - Kinsey Millhone is for you.



I really enjoyed this one. I liked the changing viewpoints and they way the pieces all fitted together. Although I did want to know if Memory's father was Jon?

Plus after all the effort Michael's brother and sister went to give Kinsey evidence he was wrong - I kind of wanted her to meet with them and be like well gee, now who was wrong?

I was amused by the ending to the case. Kinsey is a total badass. And I was pretty impressed with Kinsey's shot, even if she was all, oh anyone could do it.

Kinsey's family. Man. What a bloody disaster that lot is. I felt sorry for Kinsey when she has to return the photo album. She hardly needs more reasons not to bother getting to know them all. The reveal at the end of Grand being a wheelchair bound old lady was surprising. I feel sorry that Kinsey's probably not going to get the answers she's looking for.



4.5 stars, rounded up to 5. ( )

Digital audiobook performed by Judy Kaye.

Book # 21 in the mystery series starring private investigator and former cop, Kinsey Millhone. This time she gets involved in a cold case when a man comes to her with a memory from when he was only five or six years old of two “pirates burying treasure.” He thinks it may be related to a case of an abducted child who was never solved. Meanwhile, Kinsey is, herself, digging into her own murky past and uncovering some things she was never privy to.

Grafton sure could write a compelling mystery! The plot moves forward at a steady pace, not so fast to as exhaust the reader, but fast enough to keep the pages turning. She includes a couple of wonderful side characters, chiefly Henry (Kinsey’s elderly landlord), and Rosie (owner and cook of a local bar/eatery). Grafton purposely set the series in a time before cell phones and the internet, so Kinsey needs to use the old-fashioned (by today’s standards) resources of reverse directories and pay phones. Not to mention a lot of leg work.

Because this is a cold case, the plot moves back and forth between Kinsey’s current investigation and events that occurred some twenty-five years previously, and switches between different characters’ points of view. I thought the final confrontation wrapped up a tad too quickly, but it was a satisfying ending nonetheless.

I really like this series, but I haven’t been reading them in order. I think I need to go back to earlier books and correct that. While the stories can stand on their own, and Grafton wrote them with little time elapsing from A to Y, there are some revelations about Kinsey and her background that might be best revealed in order.

Judy Kaye does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. I really like the way she interprets Kinsey, Henry and Rosie. ( )